My new variety of lily plant originated as a seedling which first flowered in Woodland, Wash., in 1987. The breeding efforts had as their objective the production of large-flowered completely upfacing Oriental hybrids in a variety of shades of pink, suited to forcing into flower out of season, heretofore unknown in the lily breeding art.
I achieved the desired objective by intercrossing unnamed upright and semi-upright Oriental seedlings which carried pink flower color and were also suited to forcing for year-round use as cut-flowers. The unnamed Oriental seedings which were the parents of `Paramount` were produced by me, from a series of crosses among seedlings which were selected in my fields from large seedling populations of my own crosses. The original crosses came from material unique to my own breeding lines and not available in the trake. The field-selected seedlings were genetically very diverse and 100 seedlings were selected for their outstanding vigor, stem length, pink flower color, and upfacing or semi-upfacing flower orientation. These were forced into flower under glass, and the 25 seedlings which showed the best forcing performance were then radonly intercorssed to produce a large quantity of seed. This seed was grown to flowering sizer, producing a large population of seedingls, from which the best 100 were again selected for vigor, stem length, pink flower color, and upfacing or semi-upfacing flower orientation. These were subsequently tested for their forcing performance, and `Paramount` was selected as one of the seedlings best suited for forcing as a cut-flower.
The flowers of my new lily are characterized by a completely upfacing orientation, large size, unusually thick substance, even deep pink coloration, inconspicuously pigmented papillae, and small green nectaries bordered with narrow yellow margins, a combination unique among Oriental hybrid lilies. The pedicels are sharply ascending, and the buds are completely upright, which minimizes the breaking off of the buds during their handling as cut-flowers. The variety possesses unusually strong, stout stems. In addition, the clone possesses to a high degree desirable characteristics of hybrid vigor. The clone is a good grower and propagator, as observed at Woodland, Wash.
My new variety of lily plant has been asexually reproduced by me and under my driection at Woodland, Wash. Successive generations produced by natural propagation from bulblets, by bulb scale propagation, and by tissue culturing from bulb scale explants have demonstrated that the novel and distinctive characteristics of my new variety are fixed and hold true under asexual propagation from generation to generation.